Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
North Pole Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Beat the egg yolks in a small bowl with a spoon.
Pour in the maraschino and stir until creamy.
Using a funnel, pour the mixture into the boiling clarified sugar until exhausted, allowing it to form yellow threads.
Remove the pan from heat and use a fork to take out the threads.
Place the threads on a grating in small heaps, about the size of a half crown, and shape them like rocks.
Dry the threads for several hours in a warm oven, then candy them as previously described.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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